Blake Shelton: the ‘hee-haw factor’ of ‘The Voice’?

Folks who regularly read the missives from music industry mouthpiece Bob Lefsetz know that on the whole, he tends to be open-minded about country music. Which is why a Lefsetz Letter hitting inboxes today might come as something of a jarring surprise.

In a screed dissecting/deriding new TV vocal competition The Voice, he has this to say about coach/country star Blake Shelton:

"He's the hee-haw factor. For those living in the heartland who feel abandoned by the mainstream. I like some of his records, but explain exactly why he's got tattoos again? Does he think they make him look dangerous? Do you have to have a tattoo to sing? Wouldn't it be a bigger threat to go ink free?"

The show's other coaches don't escape his derision -- he says Christina Aguilera's voice is "pedestrian" and that Adam Levine has "almost no charisma" (Cee Lo Green, who "ain't bad," is damned with faint praise). But something about reducing Shelton to The Voice's "hee-haw factor" comes off like a slight on country music and country stars in the larger sense, no?

Good thing Lefsetz actually goes ahead and slights contemporary country music a little more directly.

"And Blake Shelton, what makes you different from the rest of those weenies with hats? I can tell the difference between Waylon and Willie, but I'm not sure you and Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley are not the same person, have you ever seen them in the same room?"

Yikes.

Beyond, Lefsetz makes some interesting points about launching a career via TV rather than slugging it out, how TV-contest participation can mar an established artist's career.

Perhaps in rounding out the cast of a show that purports to groom and shape young singers, producers felt it worthwhile to bring in someone who understands the music some of the contestants might favor -- a corner of music that, if we're judging by the admittedly blunted metric of 2010 album sales, is bigger than rap and more or less on par with R&B and "alternative." Or maybe they felt like a show such as this should in general showcase a more broad stylistic spread, instead of just trotting out a herd of pop singers. Maybe they figured since music's biggest success story at the moment, Nashville's Taylor Swift, aligns herself with country music, that the general populace has grown more open to popular country. (Given her omnipresence, it seems like it'd be hard for contemporary country fans to feel abandoned by the mainstream.) Maybe they saw Shelton -- a guy who stocks arenas and amphitheaters, who's amassed a dedicated fanbase -- as a starpower asset, rather than a token hat act. And maybe they noticed that Shelton, polarizing as he can be, is a natural entertainer with a well of charisma, something that seemed to be readily apparent during his ACM Awards co-hosting stint (and is already apparent on The Voice).

This could be informed by a little bit of bias, but ... different opinions, different perspectives. Visit Lefsetz.com for more of his thoughts on The Voice. Form your own opinions when the show airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Central on NBC. Watch the first episode above.